TUSCARAWAS COUNTY ‒ For the previous 5 years, cities and villages in Tuscarawas County have been taking steps to cope with a rising stray cat inhabitants that’s proving a nuisance in lots of native neighborhoods.
In 2019, the Tuscarawas County TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) undertaking was began to deal with the problem, and the organization now operates in Dover, New Philadelphia, Uhrichsville and Dennison.
The latest group grappling with the problem is the village of Strasburg. Last 12 months, village officers launched an ordinance that might have prohibited residents from offering any meals or shelter for feral or stray cats. At council’s first assembly in January, that ordinance was tabled.
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Mayor Bruce Metzger, who just lately took workplace, mentioned the cats are an issue within the village.
“Several locations on the town, the cats are being fed by sure people. Neighbors are having the issue of the scent from cats’ urination. They’re destroying neighbors’ patio furnishings,” he mentioned.
Village officers are going to take a look at doing one thing to regulate the cat inhabitants now that the feeding ban was tabled.
“The council and I are going to sit down down and have a dialogue and attempt to give you an answer that is greatest for everyone,” Metzger mentioned.
Dover’s efforts have decreased drawback there
Dover was the primary group in Tuscarawas County to sort out the issue.
After a number of girls got here to metropolis council in 2019, saying thay had been threatened with arrest for trapping cats, council amended an ordinance permitting the TNR undertaking to entice cats for the only real function of sterilizing, vaccinating for rabies and ear-tipping (for identification functions) cats, beneath the supervision of a licensed veterinarian.
“Since this system was instituted in Dover 5 years, the town has seen a big discount in complaints from residents relating to feral cats,” mentioned Mayor Shane Gunnoe.
As of October, the TNR group has trapped 862 cats and adopted out 228 kittens in Dover, he mentioned.
“The group has labored carefully with the town administration to focus on areas within the metropolis, and we’ve a superb working relationship with this system,” Gunnoe mentioned.
TNR undertaking has trapped 1,130 cats and kittens throughout Tuscarawas County
Under this system, stray cats are trapped, taken to AlterCare Animal Clinic or Humble Creatures Veterinary Clinic, each in Canton, the place they’re fastened, after which the cats are returned to the neighborhood the place they had been trapped. Once the cats are sterilized, they’ll cease having kittens, and the stray inhabitants will decline naturally.
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So far, the TNR undertaking has trapped 1,130 cats and kittens throughout the county, in accordance with Marilyn Graef of Dover, who began the organization together with Sarah Keplinger of Dover.
“Everything we do is to try to assist,” she mentioned. “We do not repair your private pets. We do repair private pets of disabled folks, and I’ll personally go to their home and choose them up and produce them again.”
Trapping season is from the center of March to the top of November. As the organization has turn out to be higher identified within the county, the variety of calls it receives to entice cats has grown. Graef and Keplinger reply 30 to 50 calls per week.
Members of her group spoke at a Strasburg council assembly on Sept. 12 about trapping cats. “We imagine it’s as much as the individual cities or villages or no matter to make their very own legal guidelines,” Graef famous.
Expansion to Uhrichsville and Dennison
The TNR program expanded to Uhrichsville and Dennison in 2022, in accordance with Teri Edwards of Dennison, who started doing trapping with Rhonda Steiner.
In 2023 the group added three extra girls to the Twin Cities TNR staff: Tina McCune, Crystal Moore and Nan Stewart.
“We had been capable of divide and conquer and had been profitable in offering TNR for 162 cats within the Twin Cities space,” Edwards mentioned. “For many months we had been making two runs per week to the clinics in Canton. We had been additionally ready within the two years’ time to search out indoor properties for about 75 of the cats trapped.”
She added, “Both the cities have given us money up to now to pay the clinic charges, in addition to kindhearted group members. Volunteers take no money for something. We use our personal automobiles, our personal money for meals and to shelter the cats post-surgery in our properties. All money donated goes to the care of the cats.”
A ‘humane, efficient approach’ to fight drawback
Graef hopes that communities in Tuscarawas County use the TNR technique to regulate the cat inhabitants.
“We encourage folks to choose that’s constructive and progressive and likewise does not harm the animal, as a result of it isn’t their fault that they’re deserted or that they’re ravenous,” she mentioned. “Most of the behaviors that individuals complain about, the cat fights, the odor, that stuff goes away when they’re fastened.
“People perceive now, there may be an alternative choice. You do not must say, let’s harm the cats, or ship them off to Kalamazoo. We can repair them. We can work the issue in a humane, efficient approach.”
Anyone wishing to help the Tuscarawas County TNR undertaking financially can ship donations to 5143 Blacksnake Hill Road NE, Dover, OH 44622. For extra info or to volunteer, name 330-340-6721.
Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at [email protected].
